CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



257 



Nineteen Senators being present, the oath to 

 support the Constitution was then administer- 

 ed. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, was chosen 

 president pro tern, and the Vice-President re- 

 tired. James n. Nash, of South Carolina, was 

 chosen secretary, and James Page, of North 

 Carolina, doorkeeper. 



The House of Representatives assembled at 

 the same hour, and were called to order by 

 Howell Cobb, president of the late Provisional 

 Congress. The act of that Congress was then 

 read, whereby it was made his duty to preside 

 at the organization of the House of Representa- 

 tives of the Permanent Congress. A quorum 

 being present, the following oath was adminis- 

 tered to the members by States : " You, and 

 each of you, do solemnly swear, that you will 

 support the Constitution of the Confederate 

 States of America. So help you God." Mr. 

 Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, being the only 

 person nominated, was then elected Speaker. 

 He was the candidate for the same position at 

 the first session of the Thirty-sixth Federal 

 Congress. Mr. Bocock, on taking the chair, 

 addressed the House as follows : 



GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES : I 

 return to you my sincere thanks for the honor you 

 have done me in selecting me to preside over your deli- 

 berations during this the first Congress under our per- 

 manent constitution. And I desire to sav that it will 

 be my one great aim, in discharging the duties of this 

 office, so to conduct myself as to show to you and to 

 the world that your confidence has not been altogether 

 misapplied. I may be permitted to say that I have a 



HOTTSE OF EEPF.ESEXTATIVES. 



Alabama. E. L. Darsan. W. P. Chilton. James E. Pngh, 

 Jabez M. L. Curry. Win. li. Smith, John P. Rawles, Thomas 

 J. Foster, David Clopton, L. F. Lyon. 



Arkama*. Felix J. Batson, G. D. Eoyster, A. H. Gar- 

 land. T. B. Hanley. 



Fi'orida.J&rnes B. Dorkins, E. B. Hilton. 



Jforth Carolina. ^m. H. IT. Smith. Robert Bridges, 

 Owen K. Keenan, J. G. McDowell. Thos. S. Ashe, Archibald 

 Arlington, Robert McLean, William Lander, R. C. Gaither, 



A. S. Davidson. 



South Carolina. Win. "W. Boyce, Wm. P. Miles, M. L. 

 Bonham. John McQueen. L. M. A'dger, James Farran. 



Georgia. A.. II. Keenan. Hines Holt, A. R. Wright Julien 

 Hartridse. L. J. Gartrell, Wm. W. Clark. Robert P. Trippe, 

 D. W. Lewis, J. C. Monnalym, Hardy Strickland. 



Kentucky. Willis B. Machen, John W. Crockett, H. E. 

 Bead, Geo. W. Ewing, Jas. S. Crisman, Geo. P. Hodges, H. 

 W. Bruce. S. S. Scott, E. M. Bruce, R. J. Breckinridge, Jr., 

 John M. Elliott 



Louisiana. Duncan F. Kenner, Charles Tilliers, John 

 Perkins, Jr.. Charles M. Conrad, Henry Marshall, Lucien 

 Dupose. 



Mississippi. John J. McRae, J. W. Clapp. Reuben Davis, 

 Israel Welsh, H. C. Chambers, Otho R. Singleton, E. Barks- 

 dale. 



Missouri.* Wm. H. Cooke, Thomas A. Harris. Casper 

 W. Bell, A. H. Conrow, George G. Vest, Thomas W. Free- 

 man, Samuel Hyer.t 



Ten newee.. A. G. Watkins, D. M. Currin, J. D. C. Atkins, 

 H. E. Foster. Thomas Menees, George W. Jones, Meredith 

 P. Gentry, William G. Swann, W. H. Tibbs, N. S. Gardner, 

 J. T. Heiskell. 



Texas John A. Wilcox. P. W. Gregg, C. C. Herbert, W. 



B. Wright. M. P. Graham, S. B. F. Sexton. 

 Virginia. John R. Chambliss, M. R. H Garnett, James 



Lyons. Collier, Thomas S. Bocock, John Goode. Jr., 



James P. Holcomb. D. C. Deiarnette, William Smith, A. R. 

 Boteler. John B. Baldwin, Waller R. Staples. Walter Pres- 

 ton. Vacancy vice A. G. Jenkins, Robert Johnson, Charles 

 W. Russell. 



Missouri, under the apportionment, ii entitled to thirteen memb?rs. 

 The State has not been districted, and the above members to the Pro- 



t Taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, and not present. 



VOL. II.-1T 



firm determination, so far as I may be able, to main- 

 tain the dignity and preserve th'e decorum of this 

 body ; to administer its rules with firmness and cour- 

 tesy, and to conduct its business with the strictest im- 

 partiality. If such a determination, united with a sin- 

 cere desire to see our legislation take such shape as will 

 best tend to secure the independence, maintain the 

 honor, and advance the welfare of this entire Confed- 

 eracy if this could command success I am sure I 

 might expect to succeed. But other qualifications are 

 requisite, about which it is not for me to promise. If 

 in anything I may fall short, I trust that tne same kind 

 partiality which has called me to this position will 

 throw the mantle of charity over my defects, and will 

 give me, in every time of trial, that kind cooperation 

 and generous support which my deficiencies may re- 

 quire. The unanimity with which you have made* this 

 election is a happy augury of the spirit with which 

 your proceedings will be governed. This is no time 

 for resentments, no time lor jealousies or heartburn- 

 ings. Influenced by a great common purpose, sharing 

 together the same rich nope, and united by a common 

 destiny, let us hush every murmur of discontent, and 

 banish every feeling of "personal grief. Here let H8 

 know no man save as a co-laborer in the same great 

 cause, sustaining those whom circumstances may des- 

 ignate to go forward ; seeking nothing for the sake 

 merely of personal gratification, but willing rather to 

 yield everything for the public good " in honor pre- 

 ferring one another." Tnat some of you, influenced 

 by momentary impulse, should grow restive under the 

 enforcement of those rules which you may make for 

 your own government would be a matter neither of 

 surprise nor of complaint. But he will prove himself 

 either a weak or a bad man who, on reflection, fails to 

 call back his wayward spirit, and subject it to necessary 

 restraint. Submission to constituted authority is the 

 primary necessity in all communities, and self-control 

 is the chief lesson of individual life. In the light of 

 passing events we can measure the height and the 

 depth of the excellence intended to be conveyed, when 

 it is said, " Better is he who ruleth his own spirit than 

 he who taketh a citv." The gaze of the world is fixed 

 upon us. Nations look on, curious to see how this new 

 system of government will move off, and what manner 

 of men have been chosen to guide its earliest move- 

 ments. It is, indeed, a new system ; for though coin- 

 ciding in many particulars wi'th that under which we 

 lived so long, it yet differs from it in many essential 

 particulars. When the Constitution of 1787 was put 

 in operation the War of the Revolution had been suc- 

 cessfully closed. Peace prevailed throughout the whole 

 land, and hallowed all its borders. The industrial 

 operations of the country, long held back, now bound- 

 ed forward and expande'd with all the vigor and rank- 

 ness of tropical vegetation beneath the influence of a 

 midsummer sun. The trial which that constitution had 

 to encounter in its earliest, as well as in its more ma- 

 tured existence, was simply one engendered by a con- 

 flict of these interests. The question was whether it 

 could give protection to all these interests without be- 

 coming the partisan of one and the oppressor of an- 

 other ; or, in fact, whether it had the sustaining power 

 to preserve its integrity against theSnflueuce of inter- 

 est wielded by ambition. We have seen the result. 

 The case with our constitution is very different. It is 

 put into operation in time of war, and its first move- 

 ments are disturbed by the shock of battle. Its trial 

 is one created by the urgencies of this contest. The 

 question to be decided is, whether, without injury to 

 its own integrity, it can supply the machinery and af- 

 ford the means requisite to conduct this war to that 

 successful conclusion which the people, in their heart 

 of hearts, have resolved on, and which, I trust, has 

 been decreed in that higher court, from whose decis- 

 ions there is no appeal. The solution of this question 

 is in the bosom of the future. But our system can 

 never perish out like that to which I have alluded. 

 When ambition and interest seized upon that, and de- 

 stroyed its integrity, they were not allowed to appro- 

 priate the rule altogether to themselves. Fanaticism 



